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Thursday, 29 May 2008

The Federal Government concerned about increasing obesity in Australia, has announced "football watch" on the back of it's widely known fuelwatch.

"Basically people can log in anytime any place and see where football's are being kicked, in which state, which town and even at which club," said a spokeswoman for the Government.

Other codes are complaining. "First they get more funding than us now this. It's not fair," said Peter Fitzsimons, Roy Masters, Paul Kent, Spiros Zavos and all the Herald Sun journos in unison. "Our code demands heavier players like Matt Dunning and co, and our ball isn't kicked by many kids because our game is for real men."

The AFL CEO Andrew Demitriou looked up from the AFL bank balance to consider a reply, but said they would get back to us once all their gate receipts from last weekend were spent...er I mean counted.

For the real story read the http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/77061,labor-football-to-fight-the-flab.aspx below. Makes you wonder what is going on in this country.

Labor: Football To Fight The Flab EXCLUSIVE: The Rudd government has reiterated its support for football saying it wants to boost the code’s playing numbers to help tackle childhood obesity. Minister for Sport Kate Ellis was on hand at the launch of the FFA and UNICEF partnership. She told au.fourfourtwo.com that the announcement shows how far football in Australia has come.

“World football has seen a remarkable transformation in recent times," she said.

"And the federal government wants to make sure that we help bed that down so the sport can continue to grow at enormous rates.”

The Minister pointed to a 22% increase across the board in registered numbers playing the game over the last five years.

“We have noticed the huge participation rates [in football] and our government has a keen focus on preventive health and we know that we need to address childhood obesity," she said.

“When you have a look at the number of kids that have got a round ball with them, that’s very encouraging. And it’s something we want to see continuing into the future.”

And while Ellis was keen to point out the government wasn’t slashing funding for other codes, there is no doubt that the Rudd government sees football’s popularity and global dimensions as an electoral plus.

As an example of this relationship, yesterday was the third time in a week a member of the Federal government had turned up to an FFA announcement.

Last week the Prime Minister spoke out at a press call for the 2018 World Cup bid alongside Harry Kewell and Ellis was named as one of the FFA's Football Ambassadors.

It highlights the special relationship between football’s national governing body and the federal government in 2008.

The Rudd government has been true to its word, too. It backed up its election promises to FFA with substantial funding (around $35m) while other football codes – Rugby Union in particular – were not so lucky.

MC for the UNICEF announcement, Andy Harper, pointed out that football was in the unusual position of “having other codes complain about our funding”.

However, Ellis added she was under no illusion about the task of securing an historic first ever World Cup on Australian soil.

She added: “Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley are doing a fantastic job and we have come out in support of their bid for the World Cup.

"So they do need some assistance in terms of facilities and grassroots support to keep the game on the move.

“But it’s the biggest sporting event in the world and Australia has a great history of hosting major events so we want to show FIFA and the world that we can do a great job of hosting a World Cup.”